http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2014/04/29/the-politics-of-science-fiction/ Glenn Reynolds, of Instapundit fame, has an interesting column on the political battle over this year’s Hugo Awards, the most prestigious prizes for science fiction writers: "There was a time when science fiction was a place to explore new ideas, free of the conventional wisdom of staid, “mundane” society, a place where speculation replaced group think, and where writers as different as libertarian-leaning Robert Heinlein, and left-leaning Isaac Asimov and Arthur Clarke would share readers, magazines, and conventions. But then, there was a time when that sort of openness characterized much of American intellectual life. That time seems to be over, judging by the latest science fiction dust-up. Now, apparently, a writer’s politics are the most important thing, and authors with the wrong politics are no longer acceptable, at least to a loud crowd that has apparently colonized much of the world of science fiction fandom…. The Hugo Awards are presented at the World Science Fiction Society’s convention (“Worldcon”) and nominees and awardees are chosen by attendees and supporters. The Hugo is one of the oldest and most prestigious awards in science fiction, but in recent years critics have accused the award process — and much of science fiction fandom itself — of becoming politicized. That’s certainly been the experience of Larry Correia, who was nominated for a Hugo this year. Correia, the author of numerous highly successful science fiction books like Monster Hunter Internationaland Hard Magic, is getting a lot of flak because he’s a right-leaning libertarian. Glenn links to a post by Correia where the latter describes the hostility his nomination has engendered, some of which is indeed extremely nasty. Some of the arguments of his critics are difficult to take seriously, such as this one claiming that members of “marginalized” groups need not judge his work “fairly” because “[t]hat ship has sailed. It sailed when the first Native Americans died from plagues brought to the land by the pilgrims. It sailed when white men chained the first black slaves to their ships.” By that silly standard, there is also no obligation to judge works written by, e.g., Chinese, fairly, since the biggest mass murderer in world history was Chinese, and his atrocities were a lot more recent than those of the pilgrims and slave traders, and were inflicted against an incredibly wide range of people, both “marginalized” and otherwise." -Ahevid -- ahrvid@xxxxxxxxxxx / Follow @SFJournalen on Twitter for the latest news in short form! / Gå med i SKRIVA - för författande, sf, fantasy, kultur (skriva-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx, subj: subscribe) info www.skriva.bravewriting.com / Om Ahrvids novellsamling Mord på månen: http://zenzat.wordpress.com/bocker C Fuglesang: "stor förnöjelse...jättebra historier i mycket sannolik framtidsmiljö"! /Nu som ljudbok: http://elib.se/ebook_detail.asp?id_type=ISBN&id=9186081462 / Läs även AE i nya E-antologin Sista resan http://www.welaforlag.se/ebok.htm#sistaresan / YXSKAFTBUD, GE VÅR WCZONMÖ IQ-HJÄLP! (DN NoN 00.02.07) ----- SKRIVA - sf, fantasy och skräck * Äldsta svenska skrivarlistan grundad 1997 * Info http://www.skriva.bravewriting.com eller skriva- request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx för listkommandon (ex subject: subscribe).